ADDRESS TO PITY.
Hail, lovely power! celestial maid!
Soft, pleasing Pity, hail!
Whose gentle influence, balmy aid,
Suspends Affliction’s tale.
Mild as the dew salutes the earth,
Ere morn begins to appear,
Thou giv’st to hope and gladness birth.
Diffusing joys sincere.
From thy blest mansions, humbly great,
The streams of bounty flow,
To calm the frowns of adverse fate,
And soothe the plaints of woe.
Come, darling child of Heaven above,
To me thy sweets impart;
O teach me, with endearing love,
To heal Affliction’s smart!
Teach me to soften every care
In injur’d Virtue’s breast;
And, succouring, rescue from despair
The innocent oppress’d!
Teach me to wipe the falling tear
From helpless widows eyes;
And, fraught with generous zeal sincere,
Assuage the orphan’s sighs.
Or, mindful of still lovelier deeds,
Thy influence so extend,
That, e’en where silent sorrows plead,
My bounty may befriend.
Thus, when I roam the verdant mead,
And view seductions round,
To doom the harmless bird to bleed,
That treads the insidious ground:
Teach me, when struggling and oppress’d,
He pines for Liberty,
With sensibility impress’d,
To set the captive Free!
So shall my heart exult to spare
A life it never gave;
And freely loosen from the snare
What Pity’s band would save.
Then come, soft Pity smiling fair,
From thy blest realms descend;
My bosom glows, with anxious care,
To greet it’s genial friend!
NEW-YORK: Printed by THOMAS BURLING, Jun. & Co. No. 115, Cherry-street.— Subscriptions for this Magazine (at 6s. per quarter) are taken in at the Printing-Office, and at the Circulating Library of Mr. J. FELLOWS, No. 60, Wall-Street.